I've been in touch with some of my former colleagues about recent events, and hope to have more soon. I am hoping that the worst reports--about self-serving vendettas, a revolt by non-performers, and other petty ugliness--will turn out to be baseless. There are clearly some reasonable objections to the Deanship just ended (lodged by former colleagues for whom I have the highest regard), but an awful lot of the turmoil does seem to be a case of some very bad behavior by some faculty whom no peer or better school would hire--the "slave revolt" in academic values, as it were (to bowlderize a line of Nietzsche's).